Wednesday, September 12, 2012

News of the Chicago Teachers Union's declaration of a ten-day strike
notice spread across the city's evening news broadcasts Wednesday. As
Chicagoans prepared for the first schools shutdown in twenty-five years,
hundreds rallied at the downtown Chicago Temple to build community support
for the prospective teacher strike.Taking turns at the church's pulpit, a
panel of teachers and representatives of parent, community, and labor
organizations addressed a crowd of around 200 supporters–many clad in
t-shirts in the CTU's signature red. The Chicago Teachers Solidarity
Campaign hosted the town hall."We have the opportunity to be the first
large city in the United States to transform education for communities
that have been historically underserved—for children who had the
opportunity to be anything and were intentionally underserved," said Jitu
Brown, an organizer with the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization. "This
struggle that the Chicago Teachers Union is in, we're in it together."

Erica Clark, a co-founder of the community organization Parents 4
Teachers, said that she became active after watching her child's teachers
become scapegoats for larger social woes.

"I was fed up with the way I saw teachers being treated by the mayor, by
politicians, by CPS," said Clark. "As a parent, when you're out
badmouthing and disrespecting our teachers, you're badmouthing and
belittling our kids."

Clark said she hopes "to take the admiration and respect that individual
parents feel for teachers—even CPS admits that parents give high marks to
their teachers—and translate it into political support so that we're not
just supporting them in the classroom, but out on the streets."

Helping the teachers win a strong contract is only part of the goal, Clark
said. "This is a fight for what education is. Is it a top-down, corporate
model that says we should run our schools like a business, or a vision
that provides a quality education for all children, no matter who their
parents are?"

Several other panelists also directed criticism at the school "reform"
effort and its proponents, including Penny Pritzker, the hotel heiress and
Chicago school board member whose family's Hyatt chain the city recently
awarded a $5.2 million subsidy to build a hotel in Hyde Park.

"When I hear these detached billionaires who have never been to a public
school, have never sent their kids to a public school, force this reform
idea on the schools—that's about shutting them down, privatizing them, and
making a profit," said Michael Brunson, recording secretary for the
Chicago Teachers Union.

"We hear the same phrase over and over again. 'It's for the kids.' That's
too often used as a rhetorical prop rather than a true statement," Brunson
said. "I am a parent. I have two children in Chicago Public Schools. I am
a teacher. I've taught in some of the most challenging areas of the city.
How can I do what I do if it's not for the love of the kids?"

Some of the night's greatest applause was saved for seven teachers from
Madison, Wisconsin, who traveled to the meeting to issue a statement of
solidarity. The teachers, members of Madison Teachers Inc., compared
conditions locally to those that that resulted in a weeks-long occupation
of the Wisconsin capitol building early last year.

"You have been there for us in our struggles," said one member of the
delegation as the others held their picket signs in a row behind her. "Now
we are here for you."

"One of the signs at the state capitol in Wisconsin said 'The Capitol is
my classroom,'" she said. "Everything I learned was printed on a picket
sign back in February of 2011."

A representative of the Letter Carriers Union also pledged union support.

The Chicago Teachers Solidarity campaign was formed earlier this year in
anticipation of a fall contract dispute. The group has participated in
informational pickets taking place this month outside early-opening
Chicago public schools.

Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis filed a ten-day strike notice
with the Chicago Public Schools board Wednesday. On Thursday, the union
house of delegates chose September 10 as the start day of the strike,
should a deal not be reached in the meantime.